Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Israel’s immigration debate

Israel is such a beautiful country. What a shame that it’s in the midst of such an ugly chapter.

The topic: the country’s treatment of immigrants from Africa. According to government figures, an estimated 60,000 migrants – most of them asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan – have entered Israel in recent years.

Not all Israelis are pleased about this turn of events, as I learned during a recent trip sponsored by the New York-based organization America’s Voices in Israel. Earlier this year, there were reports of Israelis hurling racist insults at Ethiopian immigrants and homeowners refusing to rent apartments to them.

Some people are worried that immigration could produce a statistical reality where Jews are outnumbered by non-Jews, which could undermine Israel’s identity as a Jewish homeland.

Others worry that the Africans are just too different to assimilate into Israeli society, and they insist that the newcomers come from a backward culture.

Much of this sounded familiar to me and the other four Latino journalists in our delegation because of how Latino immigrants are sometimes treated in the United States. And so, in the dozen or more meetings we had with Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – my colleagues and I focused in on the issue of African immigrants. We took turns asking about allegations of mistreatment, and urging the officials to be more welcoming.

Before we arrived, Israeli President Shimon Peres –- who is a former prime minister – had blamed the conflict on racism and insisted that the problem was “those who simply do not know how to behave toward new immigrants.”

He’s right. A few weeks ago, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, dozens of Africans – both men and women – were injured when a public protest in Tel Aviv turned violent. Thousands of people had joined politicians to demand an end to immigration from Africa when incendiary speeches sparked what the paper called “race riots.”

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, politicians in the ruling Likud Party referred to the Africans as “infiltrators” and “a cancer” while calling for their expulsion from Israel.

Netanyahu, who shines in dealing with national security and world affairs, struggles with immigration. A few months ago, according to reports, he joined the chorus of those who characterize migrants from Africa as a threat to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.

Really, Bibi? We’re talking about 60,000 people. In a country of 7.8 million, that’s not exactly a complete makeover.

Besides, many of these immigrants – if they are like many of those who migrate to other countries – bring with them positive attributes such as a strong work ethic and a sense of optimism. If so, they are a blessing.

Like the United States, Israel is a nation of immigrants. And like the United States, it sometimes has trouble living up to that title. The U.S. State Department has raised concerns over Israel’s treatment of African immigrants. No word yet on whether the State Department likewise wants to make an issue of the Obama administration’s treatment of immigrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

Recently, in Israel, a number of Africans have been attacked and beaten. The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League condemned the violence as “evidence of a disturbing escalation of extremism and hatred directed against the migrant community.” Just a few days ago, authorities say, a fire was deliberately set outside the front door of a Jerusalem apartment where 10 Eritrean immigrants lived. The inhabitants were rescued by firefighters, but nearby someone left a message on a wall. It warned: “Leave the neighborhood.”

The most powerful exchange I had in Israel – the one I’ll remember for the rest of my life – was with the woman who led our tour through Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. When we got to an exhibit on immigration, she noted that some of her countrymen today were being just as unwelcoming to African immigrants as many people in other countries were to Jews fleeing Europe in the last century. That is wrong, she said. She mentioned her parents, from Poland, who had perished in the Holocaust because people had shut their doors to them.

“If now I closed the door to someone trying to get into this country,” she said, “how would that honor my parents?”

I told you that Israel was a beautiful country. And it’s because of people like her.

Navarrette, a resident of Carlsbad, is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group. His email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com